Today, according to my west coast brother, is "Lucky Penny Day." I'm not sure how lucky pennies can be these days, since I hear that the government has decided to stop producing them. As I understand it, pennies, and even nickels, cost more to make than they are worth. Learning this made me curious so I checked out the cost of other coins. Pennies cost 3.69 cents a piece to make and distribute; nickels cost 13.8 cents to make and distribute; dimes cost 5.76 cents to make and distribute; quarters cost 12.3 cents to distribute; half dollars cost 34 cents to make and distribute. Interestingly, half dollars aren't made in large quantities while quarters are the most commonly used coins. In doing this probably foolish research I learned a new word - 'seigniorage' is the loss differential between the cost to produce and the face value of a coin. Maybe this will become your word of the day. I know it's mine.
But back to the penny, the wise old saying "See a penny, pick it up. All that day you'll have good luck." may become truer than it ever was as pennies become rarer and rarer. Keep looking down and good luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment